January 29, 2012 CCU Benefit to Defend Ulysses

Sunday January 29, 2012 4-8pm Rongovian Embassy, Trumansburg NY

Link to Sandra Steingraber’s Speech

Fund raiser to defend the Town of Ulysses from Anschutz Exploration Corporation attack on Home Rule. Lawsuit against town zoning was filed by Anschutz in September, 2011 and is now pending. They are challenging the drilling ban that is currently being enforced by zoning and comprehensive land use planning.

Don’t miss the benefit to “Support Local Frack Bans” at the Rongovian Embassy (One West Main Street, Trumansburg) on January 29 from 4-8 pm. Music by The Yardvarks and the Funky Frack-Free Radicals (Harry Aceto and Friends). You can contact CCU at: ccu.ulysses@gmail.com CCU web site: Concerned Citizens of Ulysses

Statement by Stefan Senders of Wide Awake Bakery, Trumansburg, NY
Bake Bread, Not Shale
www.wideawakebakery.com
Tompkins County Task Force on Gas Drilling
Tompkins County Community Impact Assesment of Hydrofracking

Deborah Rogers on Shale Gas Economics

See Deborah Rogers Shale Gas Economics at Energy Policy Forum

Deborah Rogers – Shale Promises or Shale Spin? The Economics of Hydrofracking Presentation available here.

Summary of Deborah’s main points from her presentations in Upstate NY January, 2012:

Shale gas reserves have been “booked” to show more than is actually there. SEC ruling opened up the reserves for manipulation by the companies. True costs of drilling and how much is actually there are not included. Overstated reserves.

Only 10-20% of wells are profitable. 80% are not and are only ruining the land and water. They drill everywhere as a business plan and to hold leases. They resell leases, wells, everything on an open market to investors (many foreign). A money making machine more than real gas production.

Gas will be for export. They can only sell it here domestically for very low prices. Asia is willing to pay 5-8 times the domestic price. Many permits now being granted for LNG export terminals.

Classic consumer squeeze by the gas industry – Get lots of people and new customers for cheap natural gas, then start exporting it causing the prices to rise, then make tons of money, No lose situation for the gas industry & another great play for the hedge fund managers.

Editor’s comment: read article on Aubrey McLendon & Chesapeake Energy in Forbes. The industry is more speculation & gambling than production. Costs of returning land to health after drilling are not factored in anywhere. Long term energy policy not factored in rush to drill.

In Defense of Clean Energy – New York Times Jan. 28, 2012

First Presbyterian Church Breakfast Jan. 22 Mary Menapace Speaking

Copy of Mary’s Hydrofracking Skaneateles Presentation

Mary Menapace, Chair of the Skaneateles Hydrofracking Committee, will be speaking at the First Presbyterian Church Breakfast on January 22, 2012 at 10:30am.

She will be reviewing her findings so far and her recommendations to the Town of Skaneateles on Hydrofracking in our watershed and state. Mary has been researching this issue for over two years and has attended many conferences, presentations, talked to scientists, geologists, economists, etc. and has visited Dimock, PA to see the process first hand.

Also see GDACC web site (Gas Drilling Awareness for Cortland County)

Support the Seward Home Rule Bill S5830

Write your NYS Senator in support of Seward’s Home Rule Bill S5830
Locate your NYS Senator – Click Here

Petition in support of Seward’s Home Rule Bill – Click Here

The Seward Bill:
S5830-2011: Allows local governments to enact or enforce certain laws and ordinances relating to oil, gas and solution mining

PURPOSE:
To authorize local governments to address natural gas drilling in their zoning or planning ordinances.

The Petition:

Whereas all New Yorkers have a right to Home Rule and regulations protecting clean air and water and a peaceful and healthy environment and

Whereas the DEC and State of New York has offered to protect only the Skaneateles Lake and New York City watersheds

We petition the New York State Senate to pass Sen. Seward’s bill S5830 immediately upon returning to session or as soon as possible thereafter for the protection of the entire State and the rights of New York State citizens living outside of those watersheds to preserve their own environment in their own manner through local zoning laws and comprehensive land use plans.

Skaneateles Committee on Hydrofracking

How To Respond to the dSGEIS – (By Jan. 11, 2012)

“Nowhere, in the entire 1537 page document is there any mention of the health effects of this activity on us or our children – it should be scrapped.” Sandra Steingraber, Binghamton, NY November 17, 2011.

“The setbacks, from a school, daycare center, home, private well, private pond, trout stream are less than any other state in the country. The regulations are worse than Texas where Home Rule is enforced and they need a permit from local government before drilling – and zoning is enforced.” Chip Northrup, on Capitol Pressroom, November 17, 2011.

Coalition Letter to Gov. Cuomo to Withdraw the DSGEIS – Click Here

2011 NY SGEIS Flaws – An Overview – Click Here

How to respond to the DEC SGEIS – Click Here

How to respond to the DEC proposed “Fracking Regulations” – Click Here

Direct link to DEC on line response page – Click Here
Or mail your comment to the DEC:

Attn: dSGEIS Comments, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, 625 Broadway,Albany, NY 12233-6510. Please include the name, address, and affiliation (if any) of the commenter.

2011 Revised Draft SGEIS Chapters

And you can also: Contact Governor Cuomo – Click Here

A million fracking letters

Petition our NYS Senate to support Bill A07400 to suspend hydrofracking in New York State.

Dominic Frongillo Councilmember Town of Caroline

Oct. 4, 2011
Town of Caroline, NY

Statement to Caroline Town Board by Councilmember Dominic Frongillo on Hydrofracking the Town of Caroline

Signing Leases for Drilling, and Now Having Regrets & Rush To Drill Creates Conflicts With Mortgages

Signing Leases for Drilling, and now Having Regrets
By Mireya Navarro New York Times September 22, 2011

Rush to Drill Creates Conflicts with Mortgages
By Ian Urbina New York Times October 19, 2011

“Among those who regret signing a lease is Ellen Harrison, a retired
environmental scientist in Caroline, an adjacent town, who said she should have known better than to cede control of her 33 acres. She has formed a group called Fleased to fight the gas companies and help property owners get out of their leases.“There’s a feeling of shame,” said Ms. Harrison, a former director of the Cornell Waste Management Institute in Ithaca. “How could I have been so stupid?”

“Anxiety among some landowners has been growing as many five-year leases reach their expiration dates and some gas companies automatically extend them without the owners’ assent. The companies invoked force majeure, a legal term referring to an unforeseen event that prevents the two sides from fulfilling an agreement.”

“So far, at least 400 leaseholders have filed lawsuits against the gas companies. Other drilling opponents are holding “lease termination” meetings, banding together to seek help from state officials and campaigning for the passage of drilling bans like one approved by Dryden’s town board in August. (Dryden is in turn being sued by Anschutz Exploration Corporation, a Colorado driller with 22,200 acres under lease in the town.)”

“At a meeting last week in Lafayette, near Syracuse, about 50 grim-faced leaseholders showed up with copies of their leases to seek advice from Joseph Heath, an antidrilling lawyer from Onondaga County, and to hear from a landowner who had successfully ended his lease.Many said they feared large-scale industrial activity, spills, water contamination and noise.About 100 miles away in Schoharie County, recent catastrophic flooding has stirred new worries that toxic chemicals used in hydrofracking and the wastewater could travel far.”

Note from Lindsay Speer of NOON:Last Monday, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation co-sponsored a Gas Lease Termination Workshop led by Joe Heath and Mike Bossetti in LaFayette, NY. While not the first and certainly not the last, this was the workshop that the New York Times attended, and more importantly, wrote about! The next workshop is tentatively planned for Fabius, NY, date and time TBA. Contact me for more details.